CHANEL

A Brand Analysis

First published in 2009 by Christina Kinnear.

Text, book design and layout copyright
Christina Kinnear.

2009

All rights reserved. No part of this book may

be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
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The right of Christina Kinnear to be identified
as the Author of the text of this Work has been
asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN: 1 57446 846 2


During my time in Kln I attended a Brand Talking seminar. During this
seminar we were split into groups and each given a brand to investigate. My group consisted of
Karsten Schmidt, a student from kisd, Enric Martinez Martin, an exchange student from
Spain and Martina Seefeld an exchange student from Brazil and our brand was Chanel.
Each week our class would discuss various topics associated with branding and then in between we
would apply our learnings to our own brand and create presentations for the rest of the class of our
findings. We worked through a lot of aspects and by the end I felt we had a well rounded brand
analysis of Chanel.

A Word To The Wise


"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only; fashion is something in the air.
It's the wind that blows in the new fashion; you feel it coming, you smell it...in the sky, in the
street; fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening."

Coco Chanel

Initial Findings

Firstly our group was asked to generate our own thoughts on Chanel without doing

any research. Our initial thoughts were that Chanel appears to be two brands: one is a classy
and luxurious brand provoked by seductive adverts and haute-couture fashion shows while the
other is a cheap and trashy brand provoked through fake replicas and mass markets accessories.
Through these two brands we feel two markets are created: the classy brand has an aura of being
expensive and Parisian and attracts wealthy women aged 30-50 who will often trust Chanel and
are therefore loyal customers. However, the trashy brand attracts mass market customers who buy
mainly to show others they are buying Chanel and therefore wear it in a very flashy way.

We also felt that Chanel creates clothes which seem to be wearable fashion compared
to the over extreme catwalk styles of some designers. With regards to the market place we feel
Chanel is at a status with the 'high brands' in all the sectors it appears in. With regards to market
competitors we felt that these brands have such a high status that they probably don't compete but
have areas in which they are the experts. In order to display our thoughts to the class we created a
SWOT analysis.

S - strengths
wide range of collections
good marketing company
unique packaging
classy, elegant, luxurious connotations

credit crunch
price is only for the Chanel name

infamous name creates brand confidence

survived throughout the decades
high quality production.

T - threats

W - weaknesses
younger version
babies and children's version
prescription glasses sector

O - opportunities

can be a bit 'flashy' at times

lots of fake replicas
can be seen as an older brand
too expensive, too posh connotations

Brand Architecture


One of our topics was brand architecture and we discussed various brands and discovered
who they were owned by and how many sub-brands existed. When looking into Chanel we
discovered that it is a single brand with no other sub-brands and therefore is an extremely unique
brand. We decided to map out Chanels' brand architecture through the different products and
markets it appears in.

Platinum
Gabrielle Bonheur 'Coco' Chanel
SilverGold
1910
Remixed Chanel Bags By
Fashion
Fine Jewellery
Contemporary Artist
Jewelery

Jewellery

Fashion

1932
Gemstones
Diamond

Haute Couture

Prt-A-Porter

For Men Also

Fragrance

Karl Lagerfeld

Photographer

Body Powder

Gift
Body Lotion
Sets

15 Different Perfumes

Scarves Gloves Hats

Umbrella Belts
Fashion Watches
Shoes

Bags

I Phone
Chanel Application
Podcast

Eye wear

Optical
Sunglasses

Mobile Art Space

By Zaha Hadid
Anti-Age

Skin Care

Cosmetics

Bath And
Shower Gel

Timeless Watches
Leather
J12 Line Accessories
Purses / Diaries

Art

Facial
Cream

Eyes, Lips, Nails

Make-Up
Master Classes

Snowboard
Fishing
Bike
Sport Kit
Skiis

Tennis Racket

Position in the Market


Looking into the market place and working out where different brands lie we applied
this knowledge to our own brand Chanel. We discovered that despite our initial thoughts that
Chanel would lie within the high end of the market place, thus making it a luxury brand, Chanel
actually occupies a larger market and makes most of its' money within the mass market.

In this section of the market Chanel sells products like perfume and make-up as
an affordable but seemingly luxury mass market product. Therefore the mass market buy these
products and by doing so buy into the idea of Chanel - the `chanel tat does exist in the high end
market place selling a variety of products.

High Quantity

i phone application,
web profiles

key rings,
fashion jewellery

perfumes,
make-up
bags, clothes,
jewellery

Low Price

haute couture

Low Quantity

High Price

Different Types of Brands


We discovered that there are many different types of brands out there and defining what categories a brand
fits into can be tricky. Therefore we investigated each type of brand to gain a better idea of what each were and therefore
we found it easier to identify which categories our brand chanel fitted into.

Brand Types

Companies
Institution
Association
Organization
Social Group

Product

Brand Architecture

Monolithic
Endorsed
Branded
Flexible
Free
Combined

Retail
Medium

Mass

Brand Categories

Meta

Personality

Intangible

Origin

Intentional

Place

Landmark

Luxury

Premium

Event

Service

Brand Class

E-Brand
Sub Brand
Private Label
Discount
Irregular

Brand Conclusion


For me, Chanel is an exceptional brand which spans a wide range or products and a
variety of markets yet still manages to keep an air of luxury. I feel purchasing a Chanel product
can be summed up in a quote by Grant McCracken:

"the motivation for the exceptional purchase is usually anticipatory. It arrives as a
'front runner'. The good is purchased in anticipation of the eventual purchase of a much larger
package of goods, attitudes and circumstances of which it is a piece. These purchases are long
contemplated and looked forward to. Usually they include 'high involvement' goods such as a car,
a watch, an article of clothing, a perfume, a special foodstuff. Individuals buy them in order to
take possession of a small concrete part of the style of life to which they aspire."

Grant McCracken, Culture and Consumption, Indiana University Press, USA, 1990

Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank Professor
Paolo Tumminelli who taught
the Brand Talking seminar
from which the content for this
book was created. I would also
like to thank my fellow Chanel
group members: Enric Martinez
Martin, Martina Seefeld
and Karsten Schmidt.